Opponents of controversial pipeline projects planned for British Columbia say Ottawa has unleashed its spies on them.

It's certainly no secret the Conservative government has, to say the least, an antipathy towards environmental organizations allied with B.C. First Nations to try to stop the Northern Gateway and Kinder-Morgan oil sands pipelines.

But the B.C. Civil Liberties Association alleges the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) are breaking the law by snooping on legitimate groups.

The association announced Thursday it would file complaints against CSIS and the Mounties with their respective watchdog agencies, The Canadian Press reported.

The group claims the activities include illegal searches and, in the case of CSIS, spying on the peaceful, democratic activities of Canadians, which violates its mandate.

It also says information was passed on to petroleum companies and the National Energy Board, which was conducting a joint review of Northern Gateway.

The accusation echoes claims the government's electronic-eavesdropping arm, Communications Security Establishment Canada, spied on Brazilian mining and energy authorities and shared the information with Canadian firms.

“What we’re hoping here is to find out more about what’s happened,” executive director Josh Paterson told a news conference in Vancouver, according to the Globe and Mail.

It's illegal for the government to spy on people and organizations that pose no threat to public safety, Paterson said.

“It’s a question of fundamental human rights,” Paterson said in the association's news release “There are plenty of undemocratic countries where governments spy on people that they don’t agree with. That’s not supposed to happen in Canada.

"Canadians have the right to participate in important public debates without fear of being spied on and intimidated by our own security, intelligence, and police agencies."

The association alleges one of the meetings infiltrated was at a Kelowna church, where the environmental group Dogwood Initiative's Celine Trojan spoke to retirees and church members.

The complaints were based on information published in news reports and via access-to-information requests.

Last November in the Vancouver Observer, reported documents and emails the paper obtained show Ottawa was monitoring groups opposed to oil-sands development and the pipelines that would ship bitumen crude to the West Coast for export.